Abstract

We show that the dominant energy loss mechanism in plate modes of a thick silicon micromechanical resonator is thermoelastic damping. In situ ultra-high vacuum annealing lowers the dissipation of two neighboring resonance modes (460 and 510 kHz) at 120 K to . From 120 to 400 K, the of these modes increase at different rates, in quantitative agreement with a modification (that accounts for mode shape) of Zener’s theory of thermoelastic damping.

Received 06 July 2009Accepted 09 July 2009Published online 10 August 2009

Acknowledgments:

We thank Jeff Baldwin and Maxim Zalalutdinov for their assistance with resonator preparation, and we acknowledge Sarah Bruner for assistance in some of the measurements. This work was funded by the Office of Naval Research.